


Lisa

by supernatural9917



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 20:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12465564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supernatural9917/pseuds/supernatural9917
Summary: Lisa Braeden visits Cicero, Indiana and keeps getting asked about somebody named Dean.A short fic to provide some resolution to an unsatisfying end of plot arc and potential plot hole. Set vaguely a couple of years after her memories were wiped.





	Lisa

Lisa Braeden hadn’t been back to Cicero, Indiana for a couple of years now, but one of her oldest friends was getting married, so that’s how she found herself and Ben checking into a hotel near the wedding venue. Being back in Cicero felt weird for some reason. She couldn’t remember anything particularly bad happening here, but the town just made her uncomfortable, something scratching at her subconscious that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Worrying about that could wait, however- she had a bridal shower to get to, and Ben was going to hang out with some old friends from elementary school.

‘Lisa! So good to see you!’ Donna, maid-of-honor and bridal shower hostess, exclaimed, giving her a hug and a Cosmo. ‘How’s Ben? And how’s that delicious Dean?’ Lisa gave her a confused look.

‘Uh, Ben is fine, but who’s Dean?’ Donna gave her a pitying look.

‘Oh. Say no more, we won’t mention him again,’ and left to greet another new arrival. Lisa figured that it had been a few years, and Donna must have gotten her love life (or lack thereof) confused with someone else’s. Then it happened again.

‘Oh my god, Lisa, so glad you make it!’ Lisa hugged Claire, the blushing bride, currently blushing, she confided, because she was on her fourth Cosmo. ‘How’s Ben?’

‘Oh, he’s great, reliving his childhood with some pals from before we moved.’ Claire nodded, then leaned in conspiratorially.

‘I couldn’t help but notice that you only RSVPed for the two of you. Does that mean Dean is out of the picture?’

‘Who?’ Cassie tutted and shook her head.

‘Oh dear, that bad eh? Never mind, I knew he was too cute to be a good one. Don’t worry girl, I’ve got a bunch of hot cousins coming to this wedding, we’ll hook you up!’ This was bizarre- for one person to think she’d gone out with some guy called Dean was one thing, but two? This was really weird. As the afternoon went on, it kept happening, and by the fifth person she had stopped being honest and just said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ to shut people up. Word spread around the party, and aside from a few pitying looks, nobody mentioned this mysterious Dean person again.

The next day wasn’t substantially better. An innocent trip to a local restaurant had the cheerful server asking her where Dean was; when she went past her old house, a former neighbour, Randy, shouted out and said to pass on his greetings to Dean. That was the last straw. She walked over to Randy and apologised that she couldn’t do that, because she didn’t know where Dean was. Randy’s face fell.

‘Oh crap, sorry Lisa. I just assumed… well, you guys seemed so solid, you know, you were a great couple.’

‘Yeah, so I hear from everybody. But, uh, it was kind of a rough breakup. I mean, geez, I’ve just about forgotten his last name.’ Randy laughed.

‘Clearly you’re not a gun buff, or you’d never forget a last name like Winchester.’ Lisa laughed with him, but that still wasn’t ringing any bells, and she was starting to worry now. How the hell could she forget someone who was so clearly memorable to so many other people?

‘How long had we been together when you knew us?’ Randy thought about it.

‘Well, gosh, I guess he lived with you for like a year before you guys moved away. I don’t really know how long you were a thing before that though. He mentioned that he’d travelled a lot for work, so I guess you were long distance for a while.’ Lisa nodded thoughtfully.

‘You know, I have to say, all this talk of Dean lately has made me kind of nostalgic. I don’t suppose you… have his number?’ Randy laughed.

‘Oh shoot, I don’t know if I want to be responsible for any drama.’

‘No drama Randy, I promise. It’s been years, there’s no hard feelings. I just thought he might want to get some news about Ben.’ Randy nodded sagely.

‘Dean did love that boy. ‘Bout as close to a daddy as Ben ever had, I remember you sayin’ once. I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Oh hell.’ Randy dug out his cell phone and scrolled through. ‘There you go girly. Just don’t blame me if it all goes haywire, ok?’ Lisa copied down the number in Randy’s phone, thanked him and went back to her car. She was going to wait until she got back to the hotel, but she decided whatever was going on, she didn’t want Ben to hear. With a deep breath, she dialled the number.

‘Agent Ulrich,’ came a deep voice on the other end of the line.

‘Oh, I’m sorry, wrong number.’

There was a sharp intake of breath, and the voice whispered, ‘Lisa?’

‘Yes. I’m, um, trying to speak to a Dean Winchester?’ The man started coughing and choking. ‘Hello? Are you ok?’

‘Yeah, yeah, fine,’ he replied. ‘Um, can I ask what this is regarding?’

‘Well, I’m trying to find out if this Dean guy knows me. People keep asking me about him, but I honestly have no clue who he is. One of my old neighbours gave me this cell phone number so I thought I’d give it a shot.’

‘Shit, are you in Cicero?’

‘Uh, yeah, how did you know?’

‘Lucky guess. Uh, hey, can I call you back? I just need to, uh, get some information and then I’ll be able to talk to you.’

‘Yeah, ok, thanks.’ The line clicked off and Lisa sat staring at her phone for a while, unsure what to make of that odd call.

‘Shit shit shit shit fuck fuck shit!’ Dean swore, throwing the cell phone on the bed.

‘What is it dude?’ Sam asked, coming out of the bathroom of the motel room.

‘I just got a call from Lisa.’ Sam’s eyebrows shot up.

‘ _Lisa_ Lisa? She who must not be named?’

‘Yeah. She’s back in Cicero for some reason, and people keep asking her about me. But of course, she doesn’t have a clue who they’re talking about.’

‘So how did she get your number?’

‘Apparently a neighbour gave it to her. I bet it was Randy. That guy was a dick.’

‘So what did she say?’

‘She asked to speak to Dean Winchester, because people kept asking about him and she was trying to find out if “he” knew her.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I said I’d call her back.’

‘Shit.’

‘Yeah.’

‘So what are you going to do?’

‘Hell if I know, Sam! What can I say? Yes, I know you, but I erased your memories to spare your feelings after you got attacked by demons on my watch?’

‘Yeah, it’s not the best intro.’

‘No kidding. Cas! Cas, get your angelic ass down here!’

‘I’m very busy Dean,’ came a gravelly voice from right behind him. ‘What do you want?’

‘Lisa’s gone back to her old town, and everyone there remembers me, so they’re asking her about me, and she managed to get my number and called me!’ Cas stared at him.

‘And?’

‘And? And what about your mojo memory thing? What happens now?’

‘You asked me to adjust Lisa and Ben’s memories, not those of an entire Indiana town. This is not my problem.’ Dean grabbed Cas by the lapel of his coat.

‘Dammit, Cas, this all happened because of your little deal with Crowley, don’t you think you could help a bit?’ Cas scowled, but didn’t argue the point.

‘What exactly do you want me to do? I don’t have enough “mojo” to erase the memories of everyone who knew you there. Not anymore.’ Dean let him go, an approximation of an apology on his face.

‘Right. I forgot.’

‘I could reverse it. Make them remember.’

‘Why the hell would you do that?’

‘It would save you having to explain. I imagine that conversation would be awkward.’

‘Ya think? How would it be less awkward to have her remember?’

‘Well, then you would only have to explain the last part,’ Sam chimed in. ‘That’s a shorter conversation, at least.’ Dean thought about it; pretty much every option was a horror show, but he should have thought of this when he had Cas do the Men in Black thing anyway. His own mistakes coming back to bite him in the ass were nothing new. He turned to Cas.

‘Fine. But only Lisa. Not Ben. And explain to her what you can when you do it, ok? Save me at least a tiny bit of suffering.’ Cas placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder in what he hoped was a supportive way, then disappeared.

Lisa was still sitting in her car thinking about whether to call Agent Ulrich back when a strange man seemed to just appear in her car. She was about to scream when he touched her forehead, and a rush of memories flooded back to her. Oh, she remembered Dean all right. _Damn_. Oh shit. Changelings. Demons. She’d nearly died. And then this guy…

‘You’re Castiel, aren’t you?’ The serious-looking man nodded. ‘You took my memories.’

‘Dean asked me to. He didn’t want you to be hurt.’

‘Oh, didn’t he?’ she scoffed. ‘That’s rich. He… oh god. Ben.’

‘I haven’t returned his memories. I won’t do so unless you want me to.’ Lisa shook her head.

‘No, he doesn’t need to remember being abandoned by the only father he ever had,’ she snapped. ‘Where is that bastard? I want to talk to him.’

‘You can call him like before.’

‘Oh no. I want to see that bastard’s face when I tell him what I think of him.’ Castiel’s hand was on her arm, and suddenly they were in a cheap motel room with two shocked-looking Winchesters.

‘Dammit Cas, some warning would have been nice!’ Dean shouted.

‘I don’t have time for this, Dean. Sort it out yourself, I’ll come back when it’s time to return Lisa.’ And he was gone.

‘Dammit!’ Dean swore, knocking an empty beer bottle onto the floor.

‘I see you haven’t let up on your drinking,’ Lisa snarked. Dean at least had the decency to look shamefaced. Sam couldn’t run out of the room fast enough, leaving the two former lovers alone.

‘I’m sorry about this Lisa, I didn’t think…’

‘No, you fucking didn’t, did you?’ She came at him, smacking wherever she could reach a hand. ‘You didn’t think of how stupid I would feel when other people talked about you, or how vulnerable you left us, did you?’

‘Vulnerable?! I was _protecting_ you! I was protecting _Ben_!’

‘Oh, right, protecting us,’ she scoffed, ‘so that the next time some monster came after us we wouldn’t know who to call or what to do? So that I could just be possessed again, and do god knows what, or some… thing could come and take Ben again, and I’d just, what, be left at the mercy of the local cops in fucking BATTLE CREEK FUCKING MICHIGAN??’ Her shouting and flailing arms had backed Dean into a chair, and now he collapsed in it, his head sinking into his hands.

‘Oh god. I never… I thought if I was gone you wouldn’t be a target…’

‘Except for how we were targeted before you ever came back into my life, remember?’ Dean nodded slowly, eyes closed.

‘I didn’t think…’

‘Of course you didn’t. You only thought about yourself.’ Dean stood back up and grabbed her wrists.

‘I swear I wasn’t Lisa. I thought I was doing what was best for you, and for Ben. I thought I was sparing you the pain that I had caused.’

‘That wasn’t your decision to make,’ she rasped viciously. ‘You had no right.’

‘I thought you’d want nothing more than to forget me.’ Lisa wrenched her wrists out of his grasp.

‘You infuriated me. You disappointed me. Once Sam was back, I knew that it was over. But I would NEVER have chosen to forget you.’ She punctuated her words with a sharp fingernail jabbing into Dean’s chest, and for Dean it might as well have been a knife in the heart.

‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,’ he mumbled over and over.

‘You’re not sorry yet. Ben needs to remember.’ Dean groaned.

‘Please, not Ben, please.’

‘He deserves to know, Dean. He deserves an explanation for what happened when he last saw you. And… he deserves to remember that he did have a dad, for a while.’ That broke Dean completely. He had never let his emotions overwhelm him; he buried them, deep, only occasionally and accidentally creeping to the surface in the form of a few manly dust particles in his eyes, but now, he crumpled back into the chair and just wept.

Lisa hadn’t really expected this. Normally it was all bravado and anger with Dean, and she genuinely didn’t know how to respond to this emotional vulnerability. She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, and that seemed to bring him back to the real world. He rubbed his eyes roughly and stood again.

‘You’re right. Let’s get this over with. Cas!’ Cas appeared again, grumpy as ever. ‘Please take us both back, we’re going to restore Ben’s memory.’ Cas took them back wordlessly to Lisa’s car, and she was equally silent as she drove to pick Ben up at his friend’s house. He hadn’t been expecting her, but didn’t argue- it seemed that he had his own questions for her.

‘Mom, Doug and Jack were asking me about some guy called Dean, do you know- oh, who are these guys?’ Cas touched Ben’s head, scowled at Dean, and disappeared. ‘Oh my god, Dean!’ he shouted, and practically dove into the backseat to hug him.

‘Hey buddy,’ Dean said, squeezing tightly.

‘What’s going on? I couldn’t…’ he stopped, the rush of memories suddenly overwhelming him, and he pulled away, remembering Dean shoving him in the hallway, remembering his mom being hurt.

‘Look, I owe you, both of you a full explanation.’ So he explained. About the Sam-bot, about the vampire thing, about wanting to protect them and what a mistake he had made. Ben stared at him for a minute, then quietly got out of the passenger door. Dean hung his head, but then the back door opened and Ben got in next to him. Slightly gangly teenage arms were wrapped around him again, and Dean just smiled.

‘I forgive you, Dean,’ Be said seriously. ‘I know you’re not my dad, but… you’re my dad, you know?’ Dean did know, and that was the pain he’d been hoping to spare Ben- he knew what it was like to have a dad who wasn’t around. He tried to explain that, but Ben just shook his head. ‘I’m glad I know. Even if I never see you again. I’m glad I remember you.’ Lisa started crying, then Dean started crying, then Ben started crying, and it was some big chick flick tear-fest, and Dean was glad Sam wasn’t here, because he’d start crying too, and probably singing Kumbaya and having group hugs, and then they’d braid their hair and watch Beaches or some shit.

‘If you guys ever, and I mean EVER need me- my particular skills- you call me, on that number you used today. Permanent line. If I ever need to change it, I’ll tell you. And… and if I don’t answer, or don’t come when you call… it’s because… there’ll be a reason…’ Lisa nodded, understanding.

‘Will you visit?’ Ben asked eagerly. ‘Battle Creek has this diner that does really good cheeseburgers.’ Dean ruffled Ben’s hair.

‘Why do you think I chose it, buddy?’ He swallowed, more serious. ‘I don’t know if that’s a good idea. It’s…’

‘It’s like picking at a scab,’ Lisa finished for him. He nodded. ‘It won’t heal if you pick at it,’ she continued, half to Ben, half to herself. Ben slumped down in his seat like the moody adolescent he was.

‘I miss you.’

‘Me too, Ben. More than anything. But I can’t put you guys in danger. Stuff follows me. I wish it didn’t.’

‘I wish too.’ More manful hugs, and then it was back to the front seat for Ben, and Lisa asking if Dean needed a ride anywhere, but Dean had the Angel Express on speed-dial, so it was a kiss on the cheek and they were gone.

‘Cas! Need some help here!’ Cas appeared again, and somehow seemed even grumpier than before.

‘I’m not a taxi service, Dean.’ But that wasn’t what Dean needed. He wrapped Cas up in a hug and just cried on his shoulder, cried out the sad years when he’d tried to forget the Braedens, tried to forget what it had meant to live a normal life, be a dad, have a freakin’ awesome gas barbecue in the back yard, not worry about Sam for a goddamn minute, but forgetting had never really worked. And Cas just held him, patting his back every so often and telling him it would be ok, even though it probably wasn’t. Demons, monsters, dickhead angels, fucking Lucifer, all that crap was still happening and it wasn’t ok, but at least one thing had been sort of fixed, and for today that was enough.


End file.
